Commonly called "Canada's Roswell Incident",
a UFO crashes into Shag Harbour in Nova Scotia
on October 4, 1967. Initially concerned that it might
be an airline crash, the case is investigated and documented
by government authorities.

This classic Canadian UFO case has appeared in several newspapers and UFO books.
In 2001 Canadian researchers Don Ledger and Chris Styles released
a book on the incident titled "Dark Object", shown here on the right.

Above on the left is the Postmark used in the area to celebrate this famous case. According to Don Ledger there are also
plans to introduce a postage stamp.

World Still Mystified
by Nova Scotia UFO

C-News, Alison Auld, July 26, 2001

SHAG HARBOUR, N.S. (CP) -- Lawrence Smith stares out through a thick, milky fog hanging heavily over Shag Harbour's quiet bay.
There -- he points -- only a kilometre or so out from this rocky shore, is the spot many of the residents of this sleepy town believe holds a mystery that has captivated the world and eluded government officials and sci-fi buffs looking for clues into what has been called one of the most important UFO sightings ever.

"Something came down there, there's no doubt about it," Smith, his eyes squinting with intensity, says in a heavy south-shore drawl.

"I'm not sure what it was. It's made me wonder, ya'know, way out there in space, if there's some other type of life besides us.

"Whatever that object was, it come from somewhere and our authorities don't know anything about it, so they're saying."

Smith, now 68, was a 34-year-old fisherman on Oct. 4, 1967, when the RCMP called him at around 11 p.m. to see if he could take his boat out in the sound.

There were reports, they told him, that what looked to be a plane might have gone down in the harbour.

Smith jumped in his truck and raced to the wharf where dozens of people had already gathered and were buzzing about a mysterious object that glowed a dull orange.

Cars lined the shoreline near the old moss plant, their headlights trained on the site where they said something had plunged into the water.

"God, it was quite a fiery looking site with all those lights," says Smith, wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a flying saucer and a logo that reads, Shag Harbour -- Home of the '67 UFO Visit.

"It was a lovely night, no moon or anything and no stars. It was just a dark calm night."

Smith, a couple buddies and an RCMP officer jumped in his boat, travelling at full throttle out to where they thought the plane had crashed. The men had laid out lines and hooks to retrieve debris and help survivors into the vessel.

But they found no debris, no survivors and nothing to indicate a plane had gone into their bay.

"All we found was a patch of yellowish brown foam on the water -- the colour looked like burnt pancakes to me, you know when they're good and brown," says Smith, one of the few surviving fishermen who witnessed the strange happenings that night.

"It was a strip of foam that looked like a runway to me, where something come down on the water and sunk or the lights went out and it lifted off again." By this point, the RCMP, a Halifax newspaper and other agencies were receiving a flurry of calls from people along the coast, including fishing captains, motorists and an Air Canada captain.

All of them said they had seen an unusual object that had several lights and looked nothing like a conventional aircraft. The Air Canada captain, flying a DC-8 over south-eastern Quebec, reported seeing a large rectangular object, followed by a string of lights at about 7:20 p.m. Seconds later, he said there were several huge explosions near the object, while small lights flickered around it.

Chris Styles witnessed the object from his bedroom that looked out over Halifax harbour. Just 12 years old, he ran from his home in Dartmouth, N.S., down to the waterfront to figure out what was hovering over the ocean. "What I saw was an orange sphere that was probably 60 feet in diameter, slightly above the water, not making a sound, just tracing the shoreline," said Styles, co-author of Dark Object, a recently released book about the Shag Harbour incident. "It just gave me a cold feeling inside, like this is the other, this is what you're not supposed to see."

As he and the less than 700 residents of Shag Harbour puzzled over the object, the Royal Canadian Air Force moved in to investigate and the navy dispatched a team of divers to search for wreckage.

They could find nothing, although some fishermen said they saw divers bringing up shiny pieces of debris, according to Styles' book.

By this point, speculation was growing that the orange object that some say floated noiselessly in the skies over the south shore was not an airplane.

Days after the incident, the Halifax Chronicle-Herald was emblazoned with a bold, two-inch red headline that read Could be something concrete in Shag Harbour UFO -- RCAF.

"By 10:20 a.m., the Rescue Command Centre in Halifax was referring to the object as a UFO, having eliminated the possibility that it was a crashed airplane," Styles writes of the incident that was being called Dark Object.

Despite that, the Canadian Forces Maritime Command called off the official search on Oct. 9, concluding in its report there was "not a trace ... not a clue ... not a bit of anything."

There was never any official explanation, but theories swirled, particularly since the event occurred at the height of the Cold War and near CFB Shelburne, a top-secret submarine detection base.

For years, that's how the incident was treated -- an unexplained phenomenon that most in the community gladly let drift into obscurity.

Many were afraid the object could come crashing down on their village again. They spoke little of it, says Smith, whose brother still won't talk about the night of Oct. 4, 1967.

But that quiet lifted earlier this year when Styles' book was released and the local post office released a commemorative stamp depicting a flying saucer hovering over water with a lighthouse and boat beneath it.

In an instant, people in this south shore town were dealing with a buzz that stretched around the world.

TV crews from the United States and Canada showed up to interview witnesses. Enthusiasts stopped by to have their picture taken. The National Enquirer wanted to do interviews. People from Roswell, N.M., were visiting to compare notes about their infamous alien crash incident.

Now, there is talk of a company taking tourists out to the site to collect bottles of water.

Postmaster Cindy Nickerson, who came up with the idea for the stamp two years ago and has had 370 requests for it since May, says the attention has aroused a fond interest in her town.

"So many people stop in from all over wanting to take pictures of the post office," she says from the small building on Shag Harbour's main street.

"At the moss plant, where people went that night, there's always people up there taking photos.
"It's kinda neat."

Neat for some, but a bother for Smith, who wishes he never went out on his boat that night after wondering for years what happened. Did he see the remains of a UFO? Or, since it was at the height of the Cold War, was it a Russian spacecraft or submarine, as some have speculated?

"I wouldn't want to go out there again," says Smith, sporting a cap from the Space Channel, which interviewed him about the crash.

SHAG HARBOUR SIGHTING OF 1967

by Chris Styles

On the night of October 4, 1967, shortly after 11:00 PM, a UFO was seen to hover over the water near the fishing village of Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia. The object was estimated to be at least 60 feet in diameter. It displayed four bright lights that flashed in sequence. After several minutes the UFO tilted to a 45 degree angle and descended rapidly towards the water's surface. The impact produced a bright flash and the sound of an explosion. Several witnesses reported the crash to the nearby RCMP detachment in Barrington Passage. Most of the callers claimed that they saw a large aircraft ditch into the water. Others saw only what they could describe as lights plummeting downward. Concern was expressed by many of those who called about the possibility of survivors. No one reported a UFO.

Within minutes three RCMP officers were at the shoreline near the impact site. A crowd of spectators has already gathered. Corporal Victor Werbicki was the officer in charge. He was assisted by Constable Ron O'Brien and Constable Ron Pond. Prior to the rash Constable Pond had been in the area on highway patrol. From his cruiser he sighted the UFO while it was still airborne. Pond's attention was first attracted to the UFO due to its unusual lighting and flight characteristics. Later, during the craft's descent, he detected structural changes that were taking place while the UFO was still in flight. The strange metamorphosis was betrayed by the object's silhouette which stood out sharply against the backdrop of stars on that clear and moonless night.

The witnesses and RCMP officers stood by the roadside of old Highway #3 fascinated by the pale yellow light that floated a mere half mile from shore. The mountieís field glasses would reveal that whatever was out on the water's surface was leaving a strip of dense yellow foam in its wake. The object's rapid motion towards open sea implied that the UFO was hydro-dynamic and not merely adrift in the ebbtide. Checks made with the Rescue Co-ordination Ctr. in Halifax and the nearby NORAD radar facility CFS Barrington showed that no civilian or millitary aircraft were missing. Several local fishing boats and a Coast Guard Cutter were summoned to investigate. Unfortunately, the UFO disappeared before the vessels could rendez-vous with the ojbect's last known suface position. The first boats to reach the impact site discovered a patch of dense yellow foam that was at least half a mile in length. It dispersed amongst the ebbtide before Coast Guard Cutter #101 arrived from the nearby life saving station in Clark's Harbour. The search effort continued until 3:00 am and would resume at first light.

A preliminary report was prepared by the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax and sent by telex to Canadian Forces Headquarters in Ottawa. It stated that "something" crashed into the waters of Shag Harbour, something that was further described in a DND memorandum as "no known object". As a result the "Air Desk", which was Canada' equivalent to the USAF's Project Bluebook, ordered Maritime Command to dispatch the Mobile Unit of HMCS Granby to Shag Harbour and conduct a thorough underwater search ASAP. The navy effort would continue till last light of Sunday, October 8. The next morning, October 9, 1967, the Halifax Chronicle Heral reported that Maritime Command had cancelled the search effort claiming "nil results". Media interest quickly faded.

The Shag Harbour Incident was brought to the attention of the infamous Condon Committee, who's recommendations would shortly end the USAF's official involvement with UFO investigations. The case's referral to the Condon Committee is credited to the late Jim Lorenzen of the now disbanded Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO). It was assigned to Dr. Norman Levine who was an electrical engineer from the University of Arizona. After placing two long distance phone calls to Canadian authorities Dr. Levine decided against an on site investigation. The case would lie dormant for 26 years.

Conclusion

My belief is that if one examines all of the available evidence on The Shag Harbour Incident one must conclude that "something" extraterrestrial in origin was responsible for the strange events seen in the sky and waters off of the southwestern coast of Nova Scotial on the night of October 4, 1967. Misinterpretation of natural phenomena, incoming space junk or testing of secret military craft could not account for all of the unusual features that were reported by the eyewitnesses. Even though "nil results" were claimed as a final result to search efforts of agencies such as the RCMP, RCAF, Royal Canadian Navy and NORAD none of the aforementioned would drop their conviction that "something" described as "no known object" had indeed hovered then crashed into the ocean. At this point in time and until further explanation is forthcoming The Shag Harbour Incident remains the only UFO crash scenario that is supported in that interpretation by available and unrestricted government documentation that is without controversy as to its origin or authenticity.

SHAG HARBOUR GETS UFO STAMP

N.S. Town's New Postmark Pays Homage to UFO Visit

by Les Perreaux, The National Post
March 28, 2001, page A1

Residents of Shag Harbour, N.S., will be mailing an image of a
flying saucer with every letter and package after Canada Post
approved a new postmark commemorating a visit 34 years ago by an
unidentified flying object.

The crash has become the subject of popular lore, including a
book, and has also made the town a tourist draw.

The locally designed ink stamp, used to mark and date outgoing
mail, depicts a flying saucer hovering over water with a
lighthouse and boat beneath it. The scene refers to an incident
in 1967 in which an apparent UFO plunged into the bay near the
town and sent the RCMP, Coast Guard and townspeople on a
fruitless search-and-rescue mission.

"There are so many people coming in who are interested in having
their picture taken here or having their mail stamped, I though
we needed something with a UFO design," said postmaster Cindy
Nickerson, who came up with the idea for the stamp two years
ago. The design is also being used on T-shirts, hats and
commemorative wooden nickels.

At about 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 4, 1967, Laurie Wickens and three
friends were driving home when they saw an orange light heading
toward the water, and called police.

"At first the cops didn't want to believe us, but then we found
out another cop had seen it too," Mr. Wickens recalled
yesterday.
He and several witnesses, including RCMP officers, watched the
light floating on the water until it sank. An all-night search
found nothing except a 600-metre strip of floating, yellow scum.

No official explanation has been offered for the lights, but
theories at the time had a Cold War influence and involved a
Russian spacecraft or submarine. Mr. Wickens believes it was a
U.S. military plane.

Canada Post has created many postmarks for communities,
including a teddy bear hugging a heart for Love, Sask., and Anne
of Green Gables for Cavendish, P.E.I.

"It's a concept that goes over very well with collectors," said
Tim McGurrin, spokesman for Canada Post.

Documentary Explores Nova Scotian UFO Case

Truth is Out There in Shag Harbour

Pat Lee, The Halifax Herald, Dec. 15, 2000

The mysterious object plunged into the water off Shag Harbour, leading fishermen and the RCMP to rush out in a frantic attempt to find survivors.

But by the time boats arrived on the scene, all that was found was a mysterious yellow foam that smelled like burned sulphur, although a dark object was later spotted moving out to sea. (Insert Twilight Zone music here.)

Some 33 years later the Shag Harbour UFO story continues to fascinate believers and skeptics alike, mainly because of the number of credible eyewitness accounts and the official documentation that has been unearthed.

So it's not surprising that the story has lived on in books and most recently has become the subject of a documentary by local filmmaker Michael MacDonald.

Airing Sunday at 5 p.m. on cable's Space: The Imagination Station, the hour-long The Shag Harbour UFO Story brings together eyewitnesses and pieces together the X-Files tale, which started that October night when those mysterious lights were seen around the province.

Among those who spotted the odd sight from Dartmouth was then 12-year-old Chris Styles, who subsequently heard the same story from his grandfather who lived in Shag Harbour.

Also interviewed in the film is Don Ledger, who has written extensively about the case with Styles. The pair's research provided the framework for MacDonald's film, produced by Halifax-based Ocean Entertainment.

Also providing input on the incident is local fisherman Laurie Wickens, who also saw the strange lights that night, along with fisherman Lawrence Smith.

Adding to the intrigue is a photograph taken by Wilber Eisnor, which shows coloured lights glowing in the sky.

All fascinating stuff, made all the more interesting by government documents, comic book illustrations, the usual jazz about coverups and interviews with folks who prefer to have their voices altered and to be filmed in silhouette.

Of course no one knows what really happened in Shag Harbour, but speculation abounds, particularly since the event occured at the height of the Cold War and the fact that nearby CFS Shelburne was a top-secret submarine detection base.

There's something to make every conspiracy theorist happy.

MacDonald and producer Johanna Eliot have done a nice job in touching all the mysterious bases, while presenting the information in a visually interesting fashion.

It truly is a story that will not die.

SHAG HARBOUR, CANADA
October 4, 1967

On the night of 04 October 1967, shortly after 11:00 PM, a UFO some 60 feet in diameter was seen to hover over the water near the tiny fishing village of Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia. The UFO, which displayed four bright lights that flashed in sequence, tilted to a 45-degree angle and descended rapidly towards the water's surface. Upon impact, there was a bright flash and an explosive roar. Concerned witnesses began calling the nearby Barrington Passage RCMP detachment. None of those witnesses mentioned anything about a UFO. Most believed that a large aircraft had ditched into the harbour and that there might be survivors.

Eventually, three RCMP officers arrived at the shore near the impact site. Corporal V. Werbicki and Constable Ron O'Brien, dispatched from the Barrington Passage Detachment, were approaching from east of the site. Constable Ron Pond, who was on highway patrol on Highway #3, was heading towards Shag Harbour from a position west of the impact site, and his position allowed him to view the UFO while it was still in flight. The unusual lighting configuration and flight characteristics tipped Cst. Pond off to the unusual nature of the object long before he heard from Cpl. Werbicki, who received his information through the initial complaints to the detachment.

When all three officers met at the impact site they found that the UFO was still floating on the water about a half-mile from shore. It was glowing a pale yellow and was leaving a trail of dense yellow foam as it drifted in the ebb tide. Neither the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax nor the nearby NORAD radar facility at Baccaro, Nova Scotia, had any knowledge of missing aircraft, either civilian or military. Cst. Pond reported that the object had "changed" during its descent to the water's surface, i.e., it changed shape, and that it appeared to be "no known object." Later, other local witnesses described much the same details as those of Cst. Pond. Also, a coast guard lifeboat from nearby Clark's Harbour and several local fishing boats were summoned to investigate, but the UFO had submerged before they reached the site. The sulfurous-smelling yellow foam continued to well to the surface from the point where the UFO went down, and a 120 by 300 foot slick developed. Search efforts continued until 3:00 AM and then resumed at first light the next day. Everybody involved was convinced that "something" -- that is, something real and unidentified -- had gone into the water.

The next morning a preliminary report was sent to Canadian Forces Headquarters in Ottawa. After communicating with NORAD, Maritime Command was asked to conduct an underwater search ASAP for the object responsible for the concern in Shag Harbour. Seven navy divers from the HMCS Granby searched throughout the daylight hours until sundown of 08 October 1967. On Monday, 09 October 1967, Maritime Command canceled the search effort claiming "nil results." Outside of the local area, media attention quickly faded.

The Shag Harbour crash/retrieval became Case #34 in the infamous Condon Committee Report which would serve as Project Blue Book's swan song. The case was brought to Dr. Condon's limited attention by the late Jim Lorenzen of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO). Dr. Levine, the investigator assigned to the case, allocated the grand total of two long distance phone calls to this investigation. One call was to the Watch Officer at Maritime Command and the other was to an RCMP spokesperson. Dr. Levine was assured that there was nothing to the case and that further investigation was futile. Thus, interest in the Shag Harbour case withered away.

The Shag Harbour Incident
Nova Scotia, Oct. 4, 1967

One of the most extraordinary, UFO encounters of the twentieth century occurred in the tiny fishing community of Shag Harbor on the southern tip of Nova Scotia. This event, while relatively obscure in the sense of public awareness, is one of the most thoroughly and officially documented UFO encounters of the last 30 years, and is easily as sensational and as mystifying as the famous Roswell incident.

In the evening skies of October 4, 1967 several residents of the village first noticed a rather strange grouping of orange lights. Several eyewitness accounts indicate that there were four orange lights that evening. Five of these witnesses included a group of teenagers who watched these lights flash in sequence for several minutes, and then suddenly and rapidly dive in a sharp 45 degree angle toward the water's surface.

To the amazement of the teens, and other eyewitnesses, on hitting the waterís surface the lights did not immediately disappear beneath the gentle swells, but seemed to float on the surface, approximately one-half mile from the shore. The initial panicked reaction of the observers was that they were witnessing the emergency ditching or crash of an airplane. The first report phoned into the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) in Barrington, came from a young fisherman who told them that an airliner had gone into the bay. The first reaction by the police dispatcher was that the young man had been drinking, however after an immediate rash of 10 additional calls reporting the incident, the police quickly re-contacted the young fisherman for location details.

Within the same time period however, Constable Ron Pound of the RCMP was on patrol on Highway 3, heading toward Shag Harbor, and had been observing the strange lights as he increased his speed toward the incident. Constable Poundís report was that he believed that the four lights were coming from a single aircraft, that he estimated to be about 60 feet long.

As Constable Pound reached the shoreline he was joined by two other officers, Police Corporal Victor Werbieki, and Constable Ron O'Brien. Additionally, several of the fishing villageís residents stood on the shore watching and questioning what to do next. According to Constable Pound and the other officers, the orange lights slowly changed to yellow, and the object appeared to move slowly across the surface of the water, leaving a yellowish foam in it's wake. By this time no fewer than 30 witnesses from various vantage points, watched as the object slowly drifted further from shore, all would later describe the object as about 60 feet long, 10 or so feet high and dome shaped.

After about five minutes, the object started to sink beneath the icy North Atlantic waves. A few of the eyewitnesses reported hearing a "whooshing" noise. While the RCMP had already been in communication with the Canadian Cost Guard and Cutter 101 was on the way, two of the RCMP officers and a few local fisherman hurriedly launched their boats to speed to the rescue of any survivors. As the small boats, and Cutter 101 reached the location, the lights were no longer visible but they found themselves sailing through a thick yellow foam, that indicated that something had submerged. (The fisherman report that the foam was not sea foam, and looked like nothing they had ever seen. In fact most were unnerved by the fact that they had to sail through it to look for survivors.)

After several hours of searching nothing was found and the search was called off at approximately 3:00 am. Both the NORAD and the Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax had been contacted by the RCMP and found that there had been no reports that evening of missing aircraft, either civilian or military.

On October 5th (the following day), the Rescue Coordination Center filed a report with the Canadian Forces Headquarters in Ottawa. This report stated that something had crashed into the water in Shag Harbor, but the object was of "unknown origin." The Canadian Forces Headquarters dispatched the HMCS Granby to Shag Harbor crash site, and using advanced detection equipment and specially trained divers from the Navy and the RCMP, the Canadian military systematically searched the sea floor for several days, and found nothing.

Here in 1967, the mystery ended with no physical evidence ever recovered, and no additional leads.

For a few years the story kicked around in the local papers. From time-to-time various theories and intriguing rumors emerged about Russian spacecraft, or Russian submarines, and an American follow-up investigation. Then the story simply faded into obscurity.

That is, until 1993 when the Shag Harbor incident once again was brought to the attention of the public.

This was due to the dedicated investigative efforts of two men who are *MUFON investigators. Chris Styles, assisted by Doug Ledger, using public records such as newspaper clippings, and police reports were able to track down and interview many of the eyewitnesses and individuals involved in the Shag Harbor sighting, the rescue attempt, and in the subsequent investigation. Through their work, some extremely compelling clues and amazing new insights were uncovered.

In interviews with divers, and crew members from the HMCS Granby they discovered some startling information. The object that dove into the waters off of Shag Harbor had been tracked, and it had actually traveled underwater for a distance of about 25 miles to a place called Government Point. In the 1960ís the U.S. had maintained a small but technically advanced military base at Government Point, managing a Magnetic Anomaly Detection system (MAD grid) for the purpose of detecting and tracking submarines in the North Atlantic using .

The U.S. military had most definitely detected the object on its sensitive tracking equipment. Naval vessels were dispatched and positioned over the unidentified object, where it had stopped. After 3 days of no movement, and not knowing exactly what it was, the military was planning to initiate an investigative salvage operation. As the Navy waited and planned, the detection equipment picked up another object moving in, and to the amazement of all those involved, joined the first object on the ocean floor. The speculation at the time, was that the second UFO (I guess officially now an Underwater Flying Object) was there to render aid to the first object.

Not fully comprehending what they were dealing with the Navy decided it was best to standby and observe. For nearly a week the Navy vessels held their position over the UFOs. The detection base however, located a Russian submarine that had entered Canadian waters to the north, so several of the vessels had to be pulled off target to sail north to investigate. Under the cover of this new activity on the surface, both UFOs made their move, accelerating underwater toward the Gulf of Maine. The remaining Navy vessels pursued them toward the United States, but the objects continued to distance themselves from their trackers. To the astonishment of the pursuers, both of the objects broke to the surface and shot skyward to vanish within seconds.

According to the researchers, while these observations were well corroborated by many credible eye witnesses, these accounts were given "Off the Record" by military, ex-military, and civilian personnel who fear harassment, ridicule, or loss of pension. So as the saying goes, "only the names have been changed to protect the innocent."

Clearly, a series of very extraordinary, and still unexplained UFO encounters, involving the navies of two countries and NORAD, occurred at Shag Harbor on October 4th 1967, and in the following week in the deep waters off of the cost of Maine.

The Shag Harbour UFO Alien Crash

by Don Ledger

An extraordinary event in 1967 would practically put the small fishing village of Shag Harbor on the map. Located at the southern tip of Nova Scotia, this rural community would be host to one of the best documented UFO events of the past 30 years. Named after the "shag," a bird of the comorant family, the harbor was literally left off most maps of the time, but that would be changed once and for all. The tiny fishing community has always had it's stories..stories of giant sea serpents, man-eating squid, and ghost ships. The list of local color would see one more story added to it's lore, a story of a visit of a mysterious craft of unknown origin. This craft would visit the waters of Shag Harbor, permanently stamping the village's name in the public eye.

The first indication of this mysterious occurrence would come from local residents who noticed strange orange lights in the sky on the night of October 4, 1967. Most witnesses agreed that there four orange lights that evening. Five teenagers watched these lights flash in sequence, and then suddenly dive in a 45 degree angle toward the water's surface. The witnesses were surprised that the lights did not dive into the water, but seemed to float on the water, approximately one-half mile from the shore. Witnesses at first thought they were watching a tragic airplane crash, and quickly reported as much to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which was located at Barrington Passage. Ironically, RCMP Constable Ron Pound had already witnessed the strange lights himself as he drove down Highway 3 in route to Shag Harbor. Pound felt that he was seeing 4 lights, all attached to one flying craft. He estimated the craft to be about 60 feet long.

Constable Pound made his way to the shore to get a closer look at the phenomenal sight. He was accompanied by Police Corporal Victor Werbieki, Contable Ron O'Brien, and other local residents. Pound clearly saw a yellow light slowly moving on the water, leaving a yellowish foam in it's wake. All eyes were glued on the light, as it slowly either moved too distant to be seen, or dipped into the icy waters. Coast Guard Cutter #101 and other local boats rushed to the spot of the sighting, but by the time they arrived, the light itself was gone. However, the crewmen could still see the yellow foam, indicating that something had possibly submerged. Nothing else could be found that night, and the search was called off at 3:00 am. The RCMP ran a check with the Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifac, and NORAD radar at Baccaro, Nova Scotia. They were told that there were no missing aircraft reported that evening, either civilian, or military.

The Shag Harbor incident would have new life breathed into it through the efforts of MUFON investigator Chris Styles. The case intrigued him so much that he decided to search for more details. Styles found the names of many of the original witnesses through newspaper clippings, and was able to interview many of them. Styles was assisted by MUFON investigator Doug Ledger. These two men would uncover some extremely compelling evidence through their interviews. They discovered that when the divers of the Granby finished their work, the case was not over after all. The divers, along with other witnesses related these events; The object that dove into the waters of the harbor had soon left the Shag area, traveling underwater for about 25 miles to a place called Government Point, which was near a submarine detection base. The object was spotted on sonar there, and Naval vessels were positioned over it. After a couple of days, the military was planning a salvage operation, when a second UFO joined the first. Common belief at the time was that the second craft had arrived to render aid to the first.

At this time, the Navy decided to wait and watch. After about a week of monitoring the two UFOs, some of the vessels were called to investigate a Russian submarine which had entered Canadian waters. At this point, the two underwater craft made their move. They made their way to the Gulf of Maine, and putting distance between themselves and the chasing Navy boats, they broke the surface, and shot away into the skies. These extraordinary events were corroborated by many witnesses, both civilian and military. Unfortunately, the reports were given "off the record." Ex-military personnel feared the loss of their pensions, and civilian witnesses feared ridicule, and their privacy being invaded. The unusual events of Shag Harbor command an important place in the study of UFOs. There is little doubt that something "unknown" crashed into the waters of Shag Harbor on October 4, 1967.
---------

COULD BE SOMETHING IN SHAG HARBOUR - RCAF

the headline declared. Using letters one inch high the Halifax Herald of October 7,1967 informed its readers that two days earlier a UFO had crashed into the waters of the "Sound" adjacent to Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada. As those of us that live here can attest, this was a startling headline for what was and still is a very conservative, provincially circulated, daily newspaper. The Herald informed the public that Laurie Wickens, the first of eleven people, had reported to the RCMP Detachment in Barrington Passage, Shelburne County on Nova Scotia's South Shore that an airliner or airplane had crashed into the Sound next to Shag Harbour late in the evening of October 4th.

Wickens and four of his friends were driving through the village of Shag Harbour on Highway 3 at a few minutes after 11 p.m. ADT when they spotted something unusual above and in front of their car. A large object flashing four sequential lights, amber coloured descended at a modest rate of speed at an angle of approximately forty five-degrees. From their vanatage point it looked like the object was going to go down into the waters of the Harbour.

Wickens endevoured to keep the object in sight while he drove his vehicle through the village and westward to the otherside whereupon at this point the UFO dissappeared behind some trees and a small hill. It was only a matter of seconds before he rounded a turn from behind the hill which brought him to right up to the Shore of "The Sound" a body of water adjacent to Shag Harbour.

Wickens drove onto the gravelled shore-side parking lot of an Irish Moss Plant. The five witnesses sprang from their car, ran to the water's edge and stood watching a "Dark Object" floating or hovering just above the water. The flashing lights had extinguished to be replaced with one pale, constant yellow light that appeared to be on top of the object located about eight or nine hundred feet from their position and drifting with the ebbtide. Records show and the witnesses have stated that on the night of October 4,1967 the night was cool and extremely clear with no moon. The winds were calm and the sky a blanket of stars.

Laurie Wickens' friends were as excited as himself. Concerned, they debated for a moment what to do. Wickens decided finally that rather than drive ten miles back to the RCMP detachment in Barrington Passage or wake up someone in the village, he would go a short distance west to the village of Wood's Harbour and use a pay telephone at a gas station. There he contacted RCMP Corporal Werbicki and reported that he saw a big airplane or small airliner crash into the Sound next to "the Harbour". The eighteen year old fisherman was surprised when Werbicki asked him if he had been drinking. Wickens denied this and was then told to hang up but to remain by the payphone.

Werbicki had a couple of constables over in that area and was about to contact them by radio when his phone rang once more and was informed by Mary Banks on Maggie Garron's Point, an area adjoining the "Sound" and Prospect Point at the western end of Shag Harbour, that she saw an airplane crash into the "Sound". That was enough for Werbicki. He contacted his constables, Ron O'Brien and Ron Pond and ordered them back to the detachment. Two more calls came in, one from a man in nearby Bear Point and another from two women over on Cape Sable Island 13 miles away, claiming she and another woman had seen the same thing. The man in Bear Point claimed he hear a whistle and a bang. Earlier one of Wickens' companions said she heard a whistling noise and a whoose. Corporal Werebicki called Wickens back,asking him to meet himself and the other Mounties at the Moss Plant.

Shortly before Laurie Wickens and his friends pursued the object through the village of Shag Harbour, two eighteen year old fishermen a few miles to the east of Shag Harbour were returning from a date with their girfriends on Cape Sable Island. They had just entered a portion of Highway 3 that runs across the base of Bear Point when the passenger, Norman Smith, pointed out to the driver, David Kendrick, an unusual object in the night sky hanging at a 45 degree angle pointing down toward Shag Harbour. They noted four to five amber or orange coloured lights flashing sequentially and what for a moment Norm thought might be the windows of an airliner. Dave Kendricks had to satisfy himself with only occasional glimpses of the object while driving along a narrow,twisting and hilly road bordered on either side by knarled and stunted, spruce trees blasted by years of nor'easters. They soon lost sight of the object behind the treeline in the direction of Shag Harbour some two miles distant.

Minutes later Dave dropped Norm off at his house and left, eager to get home to bed because he had an early start the next morning. Norm though was walking toward the house when he spotted the object again, this time nearly down to the "Harbour". He ran inside and pulled his father Wifred out to the front yard. He was intime to observe the object drop behind a small hill a short distance away. He agreed with Norm that it must have gone down into the "Harbour" and they decided to go there to see if there was anything they could do. Both men were sure it was an airliner in distress. Wifred hurried back inside to get dressed.

The distance between Highway 3 and the shoreline of the Sound at the Irish Moss Plant is about one hundred feet and affords an unobstucted view out into the "Sound"to the south. It is bound on the left by Maggie Garron's Point and Prospect point and to right by "the Outer Island" a three mile long by quarter mile wide strip of rock and sand covered by spruce trees and marsh grass. Between the two shores is the body of water, known as the "Sound", about two miles wide and four miles long and open to the Atlantic Ocean. Drifting placidly upon the "Sound"on a gentle swell about twelve hundred feet from the Moss Plant and a quarter mile east of Outer Island, was a "Dark Object".

Laurie Wickens and his friends stood once more on the shore and watched it. Moments later two RCMP cruisers crunched onto the gravel parking lot followed shortly after by Norm and Wifred Smith in their pickup. Everyone stood and watched for a moment. Werbicki had to have the object pointed out to him by Wickens, but eventually he too spotted the pale yellow light on the craft and the dark area below it which he figured was about sixty feet wide. Norm Smith estimated the height of the object to be about ten feet by measuring it against the height of a buoy called the "Budget Light" nearby.

Now that he could see it with his own eyes, Werbicki was concerned for survivors that might either be on the object or in the water. He gave orders for Constable Pond to start taking statements and to keep an eye on the light. He ordered Constable O'Brien to go to one of the houses nearby, contact by telephone the Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax, advise them of the situation and ask them to try and determine what aircraft might have gone in the waters here or if any were missing. In the meantime he was going to another house and call two of the local fishermen who had their own boats and get someone out there as soon as possible. But before they could leave one of the witnesses yelled that it was going down.

Everybody turned their attention to the "dark object". It was evident it was slipping under the waters of the Sound. The pale yellow light extinguished and the object disappeared from sight. Only five or six minutes had passed, barely enough time to react, and now there was no time left. Werbicki and O'Brien left the area to carry out their tasks.

Bradford Shand and Lawrence Smith, Norman Smith's uncle, were two of the first fishingboat owners contacted and each agreed immediatly to go to their boats berthed at the Government Wharf at the center of the village. Two of the Mounties, Werbicki and O'Brien split up, one each to a boat. Constable Pond was left to continue his interviews with the witnesses.

Young Norm Smith went out with Brad Shand while Wifred, his father, climbed aboard his brother Lawrence's boat. Within minutes they had cast off and were making to the west of the harbour, through the channel at Prospect Point and out onto the Sound.

In the lead, Lawrence Smith took a sighting on the "Budget Light" and began to run down on it. One mile out on the Sound they ran into the first evidence of the Dark Object they had watched from the shore, a 3 or 4 inch thick,glittery, yellow foam stretching down the Sound for a half mile and about two boat lengths or eighty feet wide. Bubbles roiled to the surface in places, and there was the smell of sulpher in the area.

Neither Lawrence Smith nor Bradford Shand were fussy about sailing through the stuff and expressed concerns about buoyancy. But their choices were limited. This was the area where the "airplane" went down and the most likely place for survivors. So with trepidation and a natural reluctance to finally come upon what all of them feared and believed was there, bodies and hopefully some survivors, they carried on their search. Nearly an hour later, still nothing had been found and now Coast Guard Cutter 101 arrived on site from its berth at Cape Sable Island some 15 miles away. It was nearly 12:45 A.M. Local and hope was fading fast for there being any survivors. Werbicki was called to the cabin on Shand's boat. Bradford handed him the mic from the vessel's marine band radio informing him that there was a message from the skipper of the Coast Guard Cutter, Ronnie Newell. Newell reported that he had just received a message from the Rescue Coordination Center the military manned facility in Halifax. All aircraft, both commercial and military were accounted for up and down the eastern seaboard of Atlantic Canada, and well down into New England and no private aircraft were reported missing or overdue.

Corporal Werbicki informed the others on his vessel and the word quickly spread through the now expanded flotilla of six small craft. No airplane had crashed here. That of course made the next question obvious to the searchers. If no airplane had crashed here, then what the hell were they looking for? What indeed.

The Air Desk in Ottawa, that sector of the Royal Canadian Air Force responsible for the gathering and investigation of UFO reports, tagged the sighting as the crash of a UFO and in other reports refer to it as a "dark object". The RCMP in their reports refer to the craft as a UFO. They had no choice for all other explanations for the event did not fit the scenario.

What ever crashed or "landed" in the waters near Shag Harbour was not a meteor, meteor train, space junk or any earthly vehicle. Even errant Soviet or American missile shots have been ruled out as has the possiblity of it being a dropped H-bomb as happened in the waters off Spain.

One thing is for certain. This event was probably the most documented case of a UFO crash in the history of UFO crashes and somehow got missed by UFO researchers over the years, despite the fact that as Case # 34 it was classed as one of the few unsolved cases in the infamous Condon Report. Like Roswell and the "dark object" this case sank into oblivion, not to resurface until Chris styles, later joined by myself, rediscovered it 26 years later. Now 30 years later and four years into the investigation, the evidence has grown to the point that we are certain that what happened at Shag Harbour was only the tip of the iceberg and the beginning of a seven day adventure involving two objects, the navy and airforces of two countries and NORAD.